Auction Catalogue

25 September 2008

Starting at 10:00 AM

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Orders, Decorations and Medals

Washington Mayfair Hotel  London  W1J 5HE

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Lot

№ 1526

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25 September 2008

Hammer Price:
£300

Six: Stoker Petty Officer A. E. Kite, Royal Navy and Royal Fleet Reserve, who served off East Africa and in the Cameroons campaign 1914-16 included employment ashore

1914-15 Star
(SS. 113088 Sto. 1, R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (SS. 113088 S.P.O., R.N.); Royal Fleet Reserve L.S. & G.C., G.V.R. (SS. 113088 (Ch. B.12515) S.P.O., R.F.R.); Special Constabulary Long Service, G.V.R., robed bust (Albert E. Kite); Special Constabulary Long Service, G.VI.R., 1st issue, with ‘Long Service 1945’ Bar (Albert E. Kite), mounted as worn, contact marks and edge bruising, nearly very fine (6) £100-120

Albert Edward Kite was born in Sittingbourne, Kent in February 1891 and entered the Royal Navy as a Stoker 2nd Class in November 1912. A Stoker 1st Class in the cruiser H.M.S. Astraea on the outbreak of hostilities, he quickly witnessed active service off East Africa and in the Cameroons operations, 1914-16, and was advanced to Leading Stoker prior to returning to a shore appointment back in the U.K. in July of the latter year; so, too, awarded a gratuity in respect of the salvage of German vessels at Duala in October 1914.

Kite, who returned to sea with an appointment in the cruiser
Canterbury in January 1917, remained similarly employed until the end of the War, and was demobilised in the rank of Stoker Petty Officer in May 1919. He subsequently enrolled in the Royal Fleet Reserve, was awarded the L.S. & G.C. Medal in January 1928 and was finally dischrged in October 1930, on which latter occasion he was the recipient of an £85 gratuity.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation, including the recipient’s parchment Certificate of Service, his Protection and Identity Certificate, dated 24 April 1919, and R.F.R. Discharge Certificate, with related Naval Gratuity Certificate of Identity; together with letters relating to his subsequent service in the Storrington Section, Sussex Special Constabulary, these dated in February and August 1946.